Take Me to the Water: Black Madonnas and the Initiation of Possibility
Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones
Boston College
Date:听Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Time:听12 - 1pm
Location:听24 Quincy Road, Conference Room
听WAITLIST only
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For this colloquium, Dr. Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones will present work and discussion from her new monograph,听Immaculate Misconceptions: A Black Mariology听(Oxford University Press, 2025).听Immaculate Misconceptions听begins with the claim,听Mary is Black,听to ground how Christian-colonial imaginaries of salvation and identity are challenged when we rethink assumptions about race, gender, and divine significance through the lens of the Virgin Mary, and specifically, through a return to the Black Madonna. Staged as a Black feminist and womanist theological conversation, the book offers a layered journey through art, church history, theological inquiry, and Black studies to consider a theology听partus sequitur ventrem鈥攁rising听from听the condition of the Black Mother,听following听the condition of the Black Madonna, and听for听the consideration of all those who pursue justice and life at the spiritual intersections of the world. The book questions the 鈥榣egislative doctrine鈥� around our perceptions of Mary as the Mother of God, and considers how Christian collusion with colonialism, capitalism, and anti-Blackness have worked theologically to deny Blackness from the realms of the sacred. Through the lens of the art and theology of the icon, the treatise thinks through Black women鈥檚 reproductive legacies theologically, and revisits the figure of the Black Madonna as fugitive, the womb as hush harbor, birth as liturgy, and Black life as holy.
Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones is assistant professor of theology and African and African Diaspora Studies at Boston College. She is author of听Immaculate Misconceptions: A Black Mariology听(Oxford University Press, 2025).听
Banks, Adelle M. 鈥淵olanda Pierce on Grandmother Theology, Black Jesus and Mariology.鈥�听Interfaith America, 2021. https://www.interfaithamerica.org/article/yolanda-pierce-on-grandmother-theology-black-jesus-and-mariology/.听
Lee, Courtney Hall. Black Madonna: A Womanist Look at Mary of Nazareth. Eugene, OR:听Cascade Books, 2017.
Levine, Amy-Jill, and Maria Mayo Robbins. A Feminist Companion to Mariology. Cleveland,听OH: Pilgrim Press, 2005.
Michello, Janet. "The Black Madonna: A Theoretical Framework for the African Origins of听Other World Religious Beliefs" Religions 11, no. 10 (2020): https://doi.org/10.3390/rel1110051.听
Pinn, Anthony B. 鈥淏lack Theology.鈥� In Liberation Theologies in the United States: An Introduction, edited by Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas and Anthony B. Pinn, 15鈥�36. NYU Press, 2010. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qgdgx.5.
In 2022, Christine Valters Paintner wrote .鈥� This piece focuses on the history and importance of the Black Madonna for some Christians today. After sharing how she found solace in the Black Madonna after her mother's passing, Paintner describes that depictions of the Black Madonna are scattered throughout Europe, mainly in the form of paintings. The origins of the Black Madonna may be biblical or cultural; regardless, it plays a vital role for some Christians, and different paintings are often sights of pilgrimage. She notes that the Black Madonna takes on more significance for some feminist theologians, as it portrays the struggles of justice more poignantly than traditional portrayals of Mary. The Madonna鈥檚 Blackness is a powerful symbol of inclusion and shows the reach of her love. Dr. Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones' luncheon colloquium will focus on her findings in her recently-published monograph, Immaculate Misconceptions: A Black Mariology. She will discuss how we construct our views on gender and race and how depictions of Mary shape these constructions. 听听
Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones discussing her latest book,听Immaculate Misconceptions: A Black Mariology, at a luncheon colloquium.
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Photo credits: Christopher Soldt, MTS
On March 26, 2025, the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life welcomed Dr. Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones for a luncheon colloquium titled 鈥淭ake Me to the Water: Black Madonnas and the Initiation of Possibility.鈥� The conversation was inspired by her recently published book, Immaculate Misconceptions: A Black Mariology (Oxford University Press, 2025).听
Dr. Adkins-Jones started her presentation by playing a 1969 recording of Nia Simone singing 鈥淭ake Me to the Water鈥�; the music brought to life the importance of creating joy amid the darkness of grief. Adkins-Jones then gave a brief history of the Black Madonna. Noting that Brazil was home to more African slaves than any other country in the Americas, she told the story of two fishermen in Sao Paulo, Brazil who were failing to catch any fish. After a desperate prayer to Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, they cast out one more net and pulled in a statue of the Madonna, blackened by the water, amongst an abundance of fish.听
Adkins-Jones then shifted to discussing her book, which argues for the power of reimagining the Virgin Mary in a way that expands beyond her typical portrayal as a white idol. She argues that reimagining Mary can be a way to examine different injustices, specifically violence against Black bodies, and Black mothers, in particular. Noting that many of the four hundred Black Madonnas around the world were not initially made Black, Adkins-Jones emphasized the imaginative importance of their transformation. Many people gain value through Mary's Blackness, but others argue that claiming her Blackness is an issue 鈥� a claim that ties into the perception that Black is impure. In the face of these harmful perceptions, the Black Madonna is a place in which the sacredness of Black femininity and Black motherhood can be uplifted and realized. Adkins-Jones connected and contrasted this to the experiences of many Black mothers in America who have lost their children to racial violence, who can find solidarity in the experience of the Black Madonna as mother of a murdered child. Overall, Adkins-Jones鈥� colloquium offered a rich discussion that highlighted the theological and social implications of reimagining Mary as Black.